fandomhigh | Creative Problem Solving, Tuesday, period 3

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problem solving

Creative Problem Solving, Tuesday, period 3

"We're wiped out. We were dealing with children smaller than you all week." Parker was wearing pajamas with flying pigs. Appropriately.

Eliot: was not wearing pajamas. Just some very comfy clothes. ". . . weekend. It just seemed like a week."

"That. Right." So they hadn't remembered they'd had a class to teach until very, very recently.

"So I'm sure some of you have had someone tell you that they hope someday you have a kid just like you so you know what it feels like. And some of you probably found out what that feels like this weekend." Eliot was looking a little haggard around the edges. "So today. . . . Nap. Draw quietly. Play with legos. Do yoga. Whatever you do to relax and recover."

Parker got an obstinate expression. "There's cartoons. I'm watching cartoons." She added, "If you want more of a class, create it and solve the problem yourself."

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"Doesn't being a burnout mean you couldn't hack it in the first place?" Kathy asked, caught between knowing that was the truth and being worried it was.

"No. Burnin' out means you weren't properly balanced. You don't blame a car's engine for fryin' if it didn't have enough oil."

"So burning out means you were unbalanced?"

NOT HELPING ELIOT.

"What?" Why was she looking at him like that? "No, not -- mentally. Like your life." He was explaining this badly. "Look, okay. There was a time when literally all I did was work." He was most definitely not going to go into the details of what that work was. "And I thought that was great, you know, I was a success, top of my field. Respected." Well, feared. "But not havin' anything else going on started makin' me sloppy. Not connectin' with other people made me cold. The parts of me I liked were disappearin', getting swallowed up by the job. If I'da kept going like that? I wouldn't be here. I'd be dead in a ditch somewhere."

Ditch, unmarked mass grave, one of those.

"What I'm tryin' to say is you gotta have more goin' on in your life than just workin' to be successful. You gotta have . . . hobbies. That kinda thing."

"I do!" Kathy protested, likely shocking Eliot by making this personal rather than generalized. "I read comics and play video games and gymnastics. And, y'know, patrol cities by rooftops."

Her parents approved of exactly one of those hobbies. Mostly. Though it would be better if she'd performed better in meets, let's be real.

Well, at least comics probably didn't have any "I have to be the BEST at this" pressure? Maybe?

"That's . . . good." He really wasn't explaining this properly. "D'ya ever just -- relax?"

Edited 2015-04-15 14:49 (UTC)